Recipe: Linda’s Refrigerator Pickles

Oh, wow … these are sooooo good … and so easy to make! We learned about them this past weekend while staying at the B&B Railroad Depot Bed & Breakfast in Oregon, Ohio. Our hostess, Linda Brinkman, had found out about my dad’s affinity for pickles, and planted a bowl of these sweet little puppies next to him … for breakfast! That’s exactly the kind of “at my expense” thing my dad just loves for people to do to him. Normally, Linda and Nate don’t provide anything other than what’s on their breakfast menu, but what Linda did to dad with these, quietly and non-chalantly sliding them in next to his plate and then walking away, was downright funny!

The day after we came home from the B&B, LunaPierCook reader Dorothy handed us four major cucumbers, each about 18 inches long? What was I going to do with them?? I was instantly off to call Linda for this recipe. Come to find out, these freeze quite well, too, so if you like them, and you have a ton of cukes, just load up the freezer with …

Linda’s Refrigerator Pickles

2 cups sugar
1 cup cider or white vinegar
2 Tbsp Kosher or pickling salt
18 – 24 inches of cucumber
sweet onion

Wash the cucumber, and slice it as thinly as possible. (If you have a mandolin that slices super-thin, this is a great recipe to use it with.) Cut some of the onion into wedges, and slice it just as thin (although chunky can also be cool, like I did). You should end up with about 8 cups of vegetables … set these aside.

In a large glass bowl, whisk together the sugar, vinegar and salt until the dry ingredients are suspended as much as possible. Using a slotted spoon, stir in the vegetables, making sure everything gets covered. There’ll seem to be a lot of liquid, which is fine.

Transfer everything into a covered container and refrigerate for at least 24 hours. Enjoy!

Note: Try adding other veggies, such as red onion instead of the sweet onion, or chopped pimento, red or yellow bell pepper, or sliced, sweet cherry tomatoes, for even more interesting flavor. You could also add poppy seed or celery seed … this is quite a versatile little summer recipe!